RiversEdge West

Our Mission Advancing the restoration of riparian lands through collaboration, education, and technical assistance. Our Vision We envision healthy and self-sustaining riparian ecosystems throughout the American West resilient to invasive plant species and supported by enduring communities of stewards. Who We Are RiversEdge West (formerly Tamarisk Coalition) has been working to help people manage invasive plant species and to restore native riparian vegetation since 1999. We were created to address invasive plant species, specifically tamarisk, a non-native plant that can cause degradation to riparian habitats, along rivers in western Colorado. Throughout our experience our geographic scope and our approach to enhancing riverside habitat have both expanded as our organization has grown to focus on riparian restoration as a whole. We promote cross-boundary, ecosystem-wide restoration approaches that employ a landscape-scale perspective. Our geographic focus can be characterized by potential habitat that is suitable for tamarisk establishment . This information, combined with ongoing assessments of our partners’ needs, helps us to prioritize which watersheds our work can be targeted to achieve the largest impact toward achieving our vision. Covering such an expanse requires building and maintaining strong relationships with all of our partners including individuals, agencies, and organizations such as local, state, federal, and tribal governments; land managers, private citizens, watershed groups, universities, nonprofit organizations, and foundations. We recognize that these audiences are diverse and have unique goals from each other and work to bridge relationships with a broad spectrum of individuals and organizations. We believe riparian restoration must be accomplished with respect for biodiversity and ecosystem integrity, existing water laws, property rights, cultural and social values, and livelihoods.